EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TOP STORIES
Ford Motor Co. said it plans to move its Lincoln Mercury headquarters from Irvine to Dearborn, Mich., by the middle of next year; Lincoln will relocate the unit’s 90 workers, but said it would keep its design center and regional office in Irvine Merrill Lynch & Co. presented a share-transfer plan to the board of privately held Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. that would allow shareholders who want to cash out to sell shares to a fourth-generation of family members; the plan will be evaluated along with other proposals, including an outright company sale, by investment bank Morgan Stanley, which was hired by a committee of independent board members at Freedom, owner of the Orange County Register and other newspaper and TV properties; the full board is expected to meet in January to consider all options.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. tapped Alan “Lanny” Ross as the company’s interim chief operating officer; Ross, charged with helping stem more than a year of losses at the chipmaker, is the former head of what’s now Rockwell Automation Inc.’s semiconductor unit,Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. Meanwhile, Broadcom said it’s looking to hire two or three directors to bolster the board’s independence; the chipmaker has five board members, including three company executives Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. didn’t hold its lead as OC’s most valuable tech company for long: late last week, Broadcom checked in with a market value of $4 billion while QLogic’s was at $3.7 billion; QLogic had surpassed longtime leader Broadcom a week earlier Meanwhile, QLogic said it opened an office in Munich to pursue business in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe; Michael Heinke, business development chief at Quantum Corp.’s ATL storage unit, will head the Munich office Comarco Inc. said it expanded its wireless testing deal with Qualcomm Inc. to include two extra code division multiple access third-generation technologies: WCDMA and CDMA2000 (see related story, page 5) The former chief marketing officer at Palm Inc. and Apple Computer Inc., Satjiv Chahil, has become the fifth board member at Cypress-based Universal Electronics Inc. Fountain Valley-based CAM Commerce Solutions Inc. said its operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 grew 6.9% to $62,000 on a 1% decline in sales to $5.5 million; the company said it has “little visibility” into the next few quarters Anaheim-based MTI Technology Corp. said its operating loss for the quarter ended Oct. 5 narrowed to $882,000 from $3.4 million a year earlier on a 31% decline in sales to $22.3 million.
HEALTHCARE
Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it could lower or eliminate its annual cash dividend of 31 cents a share in light of the drug maker’s restructuring (see related story, page 1) Irvine-based Neo-Therapeutics Inc. said its third-quarter operating loss narrowed 60% to $2.5 million vs. a year ago on sales of $2 million; the drug maker said its monthly expenses averaged $1 million in the quarter, but would fall to $500,000 in the fourth quarter and $300,000 a month next year.
GOVERNMENT
The House of Representatives OK’d a terrorism insurance bill that would protect insurance companies from catastrophic losses from another terrorist attack in the U.S.; insurance companies will be required to underwrite terrorism coverage in exchange for the backstop John Wayne Airport’s passenger count jumped 21% to 666,958 in October vs. a year ago when the travel industry was severely affected by the terrorist attacks; for the year, passenger volume is up 7%; meanwhile, the number of takeoffs and landings fell 2% to 30,825 in October vs. a year ago The U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee has nixed a proposal to build a 16.5-mile extension crossing Camp Pendleton that would link the Foothill (241) Toll Road in Mission Viejo to the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway; the Orange County Transportation Authority is looking at a number of other proposals for the extension meanwhile, the boards of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency and the struggling San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road agreed to combine; the move comes after the San Joaquin’s bonds were downgraded to “junk” status earlier this year.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based First American Title Insurance Co. said it plans to buy privately held San Benito Land Title Corp. in Hollister for an undisclosed amount.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. cut the low-end of its 2003 earnings forecast by 4.5% after an oil consortium in Kazakhstan suspended work while partners decide how to fund the Fluor-built project’s expansion Santa Ana-based aerospace supplier Mexmil Co., which recently emerged from bankruptcy, said it hired T.K. Mattingly as chief executive; Mattingly is a retired Navy rear admiral and former executive with Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and Los Alamitos-based Rocket Development Co. Shares of Anaheim-based apparel retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. fell 5.3% to $23.57 after the company said its third-quarter operating profit was 81% higher to $26 million vs. a year ago on a 24.7% rise in sales to $228.2 million; PacSun said its fourth-quarter results would be in line with prior forecasts and a Banc of America Securities analyst downgraded the company’s stock to “market perform” from “buy,” based on the stock’s recent price gains Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. said it plans to double its sales in North America to 600,000 by 2007, led by a greater push into Mexico and Canada by the Japanese automaker Huntington Beach-based Chicago Pizza & Brewery Inc. said its third-quarter operating profit fell 76% to $347,000 on a 14.6% increase in sales to $19 million.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Mixed: Orange County’s jobs picture in October, with nonfarm payroll jumping 0.1% to 1,420,500 vs. September, but down 0.3% vs. a year ago; the unemployment rate was 4% vs. 3.6% a year ago.
